Priest Francisco Plancarte y Navarrete (Zamora 1856-Monterrey 1920), first bishop of Campeche, second of Cuernavaca and fourth archbishop of Linares, was also a prominent pioneer of Mexican archaeology who gathered two large collections of pre-Hispanic objects. In 1892, the pieces from his first collection were exhibited at the Historical-American Exhibition that was mounted in Madrid to commemorate the discovery of America; at the end of the 19th century, they were acquired by the National Museum, where they were exhibited for just over fifty years, and in 1964 almost all were kept in the cellars of the current National Museum of Anthropology, remaining practically forgotten ever since. In this book we analyze the origin, content and destination of the collection, particularly the set of objects of Michoacán, with the intention that the archaeological works of Plancarte are again known and valued.